Washington Blade editor Chris Crain was gay-bashed in Amsterdam, the gay-welcoming capital of a country where gays enjoy legal equality. But his attackers weren't Dutch. He was spat on and beaten by men with heavy accents, apparently Moroccan immigrants, upset that he was holding hands with his boyfriend. In the wake of the murder of gay politician Pim Fortuyn (who declared Islamic immigration a threat to Dutch tolerance toward gays) and liberal filmmaker Theo Van Gogh (who was making a movie about the treatment of women under Islam), it's a reminder of why anti-western intellectuals preaching multicultural relativism are so wrong.
Rick Rosendall wrote this column three years ago about the Fortuyn murder, reckoning, "There is nothing progressive about refusing to distinguish cultures that persecute gays from those in which we have thrived."
Update 1: Crain published a near-identical version of his story in the current issue of the Blade, except for one changed detail [in the print version]. His description of his attackers now omits the the fact that they were not Dutch natives but had "Moroccan features." That sop to political correctness distorts the account, misinforms readers, and diverts attention from the real problem (anti-gay Muslim immigrants, not bigoted Dutchmen). If we can't name the problem, how on earth can we confront it?
Further Addendum: Rick Rosendall notes, correctly, that the online version of the editorial does now say the attackers had Moroccan features and heavy accents, as the original Blade Blog item did. However, the printed version, in the May 6 issue distributed last Friday, omits this sentence but otherwise is identical. So, why leave it out of the print edition?
Update 2: Friday, May 6, marked the third
anniversary of Pim Fortuyn's assassination, remembered in this
posting at PeakTalk.